Re: Call to the graphic designers in you

["Chuck Martin" <cm -at- writeforyou -dot- com>]

Yes, standards exist.

The reference you want isn't the Microsoft Manual of Style, but the
"Microsoft Windows User Experience." Many standard distances and placements
of widgets are documented there.

But such topics are not the realm of graphic design so much as they are
interaction design. There are oodles of good books on this topic, although
none give the presentation standards (they are usually conceptual).

Your programmers would do well to read "user Interface Design for
Programmers.)

Chuck Martin


"France Baril" <France -dot- Baril -at- ixiasoft -dot- com> wrote in message
news:210558 -at- techwr-l -dot-  -dot-  -dot- 

I have to review stylesheets and dialog boxes, and people are now asking me
questions about graphic presentation.

What is the standard distance between static text lines or check boxes?

Should we align static text? For example:
Name: Name value here
Age:  Age value aligned with the name value above

Should we just follow what seems to be the norm in other property sheets and
dialog boxes? Or are there strict guidelines to follow? I have Microsoft
Manual of Style and I cannot find anything as specific as interface layout
mesurement.

If you know of any reference book or website on the matter, I would be very
interested. As a technical writer specialized in computer programming, I
have never taken the time to study graphic design rules.